1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a composition for electroporation useful for improving percutaneous absorption of drugs or the like.
2. Background Art
Since percutaneous absorption as an administration route gives less pain compared with injection or the like and shows lower incidence of forgetting administration compared with oral administration, it is expected as a promising drug administration route. However, percutaneous absorption is difficult due to the inherent defense function of skin and, thus it has not been established yet as means for drug delivery. As an example of methods proposed to overcome such a current problem, there can be mentioned the so-called electroporation, in which pores are formed in the skin structure by applying a voltage so that a drug should be transported through the pores. It has been recently becoming clear that the drug behavior is different in such electroporation from those in usual administrations, and development of compositions for percutaneous administration suitable for such electroporation has been desired. That is, although electroporation is useful means for percutaneous drug transport, this technique alone may not be sufficient for drug transport, and thus development of pharmaceutical preparations that enhance that effect has been desired.
Meanwhile, no composition for electroporation containing alkaline earth metal ions such as calcium ions is known. It is not known either that the presence of alkaline earth metal ions promote percutaneous drug absorption by electroporation.